Archive for October 4th, 2008

From my childhood I always wished where ever I am I should be at my home in Kolkata for the Durga Puja. We have a century old tradition of worshiping the deity. But, this time it’s a little different. I am away from home for the first time in my life during the Durga Pujas. I am missing every bit of this gorgeous festival.

If you are in Kolkata we’ll never be able to ignore the arrival of this festive season. With the start of September you can feel the Puja is nearing. All the markets and for now the shopping malls are flooded with people to buy new clothes, shoes, and house hold articles. As the big day nears, the foot paths are barricaded with bamboo pillars to control the heavy crowd. There are big hoardings of advertisements on every nook and corner of the city. With all these grandeur and pomp comes our idol. I miss those lazy afternoons sitting at my neighborhood Puja pandal chit chatting with my friends. All my relatives come to my place to worship the deity. O, I miss everything about Kolkata.

There is nothing more I can do but to think about the by gone days of living in Kolkata during the Durga Pujas. So, just to make myself a little happier than I am right now, I thought of adding some special recipes for this occassion.

Living in the Southern part of India, these days I come across a lot many South Indian cuisine. Every region in South India has got its own style of cooking. Malabar region is in the South-western part of India, facing the Arabian Sea. Lots of spices like cloves, coriander, cardamom, black pepper grow in the hilly terrain of the Malabar Coast. All their cuisine is done with these spices. The Malabar Chicken is just one such example of the rich cuisine of this coastal region.